Rockies roster rundown – cuindependent

This year, the CU Independent has been granted access to the Rockies’ Spring Training camp—the first time in the history of the Rockies organization that the team has allowed a college newspaper to report from inside their facilities. I am extremely excited and eager to get down to Scottsdale and report back to Boulder on interesting happenings.
But, I won’t be going down there until the end of March, so in the time before then I thought it fitting to write some preliminary pieces, starting with this roster analysis. This Spring Training is sure to be chock full of position battles and displays of unproven talents trying to stake their claim with the team.
So, to begin things with a bang, I’d like to start with the state of the Rockies’ pitching in general, followed by a more in-depth look at starters and then the bullpen. To toss everything in a bag with one simple statement, the Rockies’ pitching was atrocious last season. Their combined team ERA of 4.84 was worst in the majors. Opponents hit .276 off Rockies pitchers last year, second only to the Minnesota Twins for worst in the league. I could keep listing stats about the bad state of the 2014 Rockies pitching that would become more and more obscure, but trust me on this one, it was awful last season. The pitching staff this year will be a smorgasbord of veterans, new guys, unproven talent and guys trying to rediscover success.
The Rockies’ starting pitching will be anchored by Jorge de la Rosa, who led the team last year in wins, ERA and strikeouts. The veteran is also three games away from tying Aaron Cook’s franchise wins record of 72. This offseason, the Rockies snagged Kyle Kendrick from the Phillies. They will look to him to provide further stability in a rotation that used 15 starting pitchers last year. Both veterans will likely be helpful to the younger guys who we might see starting this season.
The most promising of those young guns are Tyler Matzek and Jordan Lyles. Interestingly, both players were born on October 19, 1990. Maztek went 6-11 with a 4.05 ERA in his rookie campaign last season. He will look to polish his stuff and lower his walks (44 BB vs 91 K in 2014) in his first full major league season this year. As for Lyles, the 6’4” righty has been in the majors since 2011, but came over … – Click Here To Visit Article Source